You are here: American University Washington College of Law Impact Initiatives Programs Women and the Law Program

Women and the Law Program

Back to top

Women and the Law Program

The Women and the Law Program transforms legal education by opening up spaces for feminist legal scholarship, teaching, and activism. We bring together scholars who examine how legal doctrine shapes the lived experiences of women, and how law can be a tool to push back against discrimination and bigotry. Our teachers integrate gender into the law school classroom, asking the hard questions about how law and legal categories enable and constrain people on the basis of their sex, gender, sexuality, or identity. We work together with our students to create a world in which all people live free from gender-based oppression and violence.

Studying Gender and Law at WCL

The Women and the Law Program supports students and scholars who want to use their law degree to fight for gender justice. WCL offers more gender and law courses than any other law school in the world, from general introductory courses to advanced specialized seminars and experiential learning.

Learn More

Our Projects

See the projects we are working on . . .

 

Interdisciplinary Project on Human Trafficking

This project is composed of a group of scholars, activists and practitioners from a range of professional backgrounds including law, anthropology and sociology--with different political views--who share a commitment to social justice involving labor, migration, and human trafficking.

Read more
 

Comparative Family Law

At the most basic level, comparative family law is the comparison of legal systems for the regulation of intimate and family lives. Comparison can be functional, serving to inform the discussion about similar or different institutional arrangements to address analogous legal problems arising all over the world.

Learn More

 

Gender, Health and Justice

For many women and LGBT individuals around the world, the promise of health remains unfulfilled. This project seeks to address the issues of gender discrimination, stereotyping and socio-economic vulnerability that create barriers to obtaining high quality health services for women, and members of LGBT communities.

Learn More

 

Gender Jurisprudence and International Criminal Law

The Gender Jurisprudence project aims to encourage awareness and research on the jurisprudence from international and hybrid tribunals regarding sexual and gender-based violence committed during conflict, and to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of these crimes under international law.

Learn More

 

Integrating Gender into Legal Education

We seek to integrate gender into all aspects of legal education, encouraging students to ask the hard questions about how law and legal categories enable and constrain people on the basis of their sex, gender, sexuality, or identity.

 

IP/Gender: Mapping the Connections

The IP/Gender series brings together scholars in Intellectual Property and Gender Studies to present innovative scholarship that unites these two fields. This year, we will engage in a broad discussion “Reimagining IP/Gender: The Next Ten Years of Feminist Engagement with Intellectual Property Law.”

Learn More

 

Student Debt and Education Justice

Borrowers owe over $1 trillion in student loans. Students who default on loans—regardless of whether their job prospects actually improved after enrolling in the college or the course—experience a host of negative consequences.

Learn More

 

Past Projects

Click here to explore all our previous projects.

Learn More

Previous
Next